As a method for forming dyes by using a silver halide color photographic material, a method is mentioned wherein photographic couplers and the oxidized product of a color-developing agent are reacted to form dyes, and as photographic couplers for the usual color reproduction, magenta, yellow, and cyan couplers are used, and as a color-developing agent, an aromatic primary amine color-developing agent is used. The reactions of a magenta coupler and a yellow coupler with the oxidized product of an aromatic primary amine color-developing agent form dyes such as azomethine dyes, and the reaction of a cyan coupler with the oxidized product of an aromatic primary amine color developing agent forms a dye such as an indoaniline dye.
Couplers employed for forming yellow dye images include, for example, acylacetanilide couplers; couplers for forming magenta dye images include, for example, pyrazolone, pyrazolobenzimidazole, pyrazolotriazole, or indazolone couplers, and as couplers for forming cyan dye images, for example, phenol or naphthol couplers are generally employed.
In particular, couplers widely used for forming magenta dye images are 5-pyrazolones. The dyes formed from these couplers have subsidiary absorption near 430 nm in addition to the main absorption near 550 nm, and this subsidiary absorption of a yellow component causes color contamination, which has been a serious problem in view of color reproduction. Further, in the case of magenta couplers, the degree of yellow stain caused by the decomposition of the coupler remaining in the color unformed part by light, heat, and humidity is quite high in comparison with those of cyan and yellow couplers, this yellow stain has been a defect in view of the improvement in image preservability.
As magenta couplers improved in yellow stain as well as the above subsidiary absorption of a yellow component, pyrazolotriazole couplers described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,067, JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) Nos. 99437/1984, 162548/1984, and 171956/1984, and Research Disclosure Nos. 24,220, 24,230, and 24,531 are particularly fine.
The dyes formed from pyrazolotriazole magenta couplers described in these publications are good in color reproduction and are high in stability to heat and moist heat, since the subsidiary absorption near 430 nm is considerably smaller than that of the dyes formed from the above-mentioned 5-pyrazolones having an anilino group in the 3-position. In addition they have quite favorable performance, since the formation of yellow stain in the color unformed part caused by light, heat, and moist heat is quite small.
The dyes formed from the above-mentioned pyrazolotriazole magenta couplers have fine properties as described above, and these fine properties are exhibited particularly well when they are applied in color print papers.
On the other hand, there are two major performances expected for color print papers: 1. the obtained color image should be fine in color reproduction, and 2. the obtained color image should last for a long time as it is.
Therefore, in comparison with color print paper wherein conventionally 5-pyrazolones are used, color print paper wherein the above-mentioned pyrazolotriazole magenta couplers are introduced is fine in color reproduction and the obtained image is hardly changed by heat or moist heat, so that it can be said that the performances thereof have come near the above expected ideal performances. However, although the dark-fading (a change in the color image when it was kept in dark, such in an album) of the color print is indeed improved considerably, further progress in the stability of the color print to light is expected. In this case, particularly in order to make a person who observes the image feel that the color image does not change permanently, of course each of yellow, magenta, and cyan should undergo as little light-fading as possible, and at the same time it is also important that the extent of the light-fading of the yellow, magenta, and cyan dyes are almost the same regardless of the light source and the period of the exposure to light. That is, if the extent of the light-fading of yellow, magenta, and cyan are different and the color balance is lost, the image quality drops extremely.